All the Arts, All the Time

Mona Lisa speaks! And it's in Mandarin

August 19, 2009 | 9:47
am

For
five centuries, Mona Lisa has gazed upon her admirers in silence, her
faint smile inspiring endless speculation as to what secrets she holds.
Now, she's dishing about her personal life -- and it's in Mandarin.

"Hello, I am Mona Lisa. It's nice to meet you," she says in a Chinese Central Television video (click here to watch)
taken at a show called the World Classic Multimedia Interactive Arts
Exhibition in Beijing. Of course, it is not the real Mona Lisa, which
is at the Louvre in Paris and firmly tucked away behind a bullet-proof
screen that recently came in handy when an irate Russian woman threw a ceramic cup at it.

Instead, this Mona Lisa is a digital re-creation courtesy of the Alive Gallery
in Seoul, South Korea, and is traveling to China on a three-city tour,
along with a collection of other walking, talking masterworks from
throughout the ages. In all, Chinese media reports say, there are 61
items on display, including digital renditions of "The Last
Supper," the Egyptian Book of the Dead (a.k.a. the Papyrus of Ani) and
Venus, as well as works by more modern artists, such as Wassily
Kandinsky.

But the piece de resistance is Mona Lisa, who
not only has a mastery of Mandarin -- and, in a previous incarnation,
Korean -- but also waves to visitors. And in Beijing, it would seem,
the only things being hurled at the artwork are softball questions.

"Are you married? Do you lead a happy life?" asks one woman on the
CCTV video. "Yes, I am married, and my husband loves me so much," the
painting answers -- reportedly with the help of "sound identification
technology," though it is unclear exactly
how the response is generated.